MARSEILLE, France — The narrative of England’s quarterfinal against Fiji was always going to revolve around Owen Farrell one way or another.
England’s record point-scorer polarises opinion, much to the astonishment of those who’ve played alongside him, but for all the selection talk and whether he was in form or not, on Sunday, when the pressure told, he was the man who kicked his team into the semifinal of the Rugby World Cup.
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England’s 30-24 win over Fiji was built on breakdown supremacy, pragmatic rugby and as much error-free rugby as possible with Ben Earl, Courtney Lawes and Maro Itoje all heroic in nullifying Fiji’s lightning-quick ruck speed.
As Farrell hoofed the ball deep into the Stade Veledrome crowd to halt one final Fiji attack, it was greeted by Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” booming out from the stadium PA. It was a fitting soundtrack to mark a victory which sees England navigate their way into the last four of the World Cup after a year where they came into the World Cup with three wins from nine.
It’s been some turnaround for a team who came into this World Cup talking about being prematurely written off, a group talking about how much they’ve learnt from a Six Nations campaign where they finished fifth, and a pre-tournament quartet of games where they lost to Wales, Ireland and Fiji. And five weeks after they relied on the boot of George Ford to get 14-man England past Argentina in the opener, it was Farrell on the same patch of grass whose metronomic kicking from the tee and from hand saw them home again.
“The players were written off,” England coach Steve Borthwick said. “A lot of people said we wouldn’t get out of the pool. We got out of the pool, now we got out of the quarterfinal.”
The pre-match talk from the England camp was around the decision to start Marcus Smith at fullback and Farrell at fly-half, with George Ford — who kicked all of England’s points in their opener — on the bench. Smith danced and darted in the early exchanges, slotting into the second playmaker role in attack, and falling back to cover in defence alongside Elliot Daly.
England started the better of the two sides and the pressure told with a Farrell penalty after 11th minutes, and then Manu Tuilagi’s try in the 14th minute as Farrell scooped up the ball off a scrappy ruck and put the England man away as he swept round the corner, went through two Fijian defenders, rolling over the line to score.
Joe Marchant added another in the 23rd minute and it was looking like England had control of the match, but as they know from that late August defeat in Twickenham, and the scare Fiji gave Wales in the opener as well as the win over Australia in Saint-Etienne, the Pacific Islanders are one of the most dangerous teams in the sport when they get momentum.
It needed England to have a 15-3 lead for Fiji to spark, and despite having Vinaya Habosi in the sin-bin after he split open Smith’s head with his own forehead, Viliame Mata scored their opener with a wonderfully worked try which saw him throw a dummy to confuse half the English defence having picked up a pass scooped through Vilimoni Botitu’s legs.
But whenever Fiji found ascendancy, England managed to wrestle the match back in their favour. The pinch points came between the 60th and 70th minute. England were hit with “two thunderbolts” as Borthwick said, from Peni Ravai and Botitu, and with 12 minutes left it was locked at 24 points apiece.
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We’ve seen Fijian teams sprint away at this juncture, finding an extra gear and blowing their opponents out of the water. But England found a way back into the match, Farrell dropped a goal in the 72nd minute, and slotted a penalty six minutes later — thanks to Earl’s 50-metre break — to secure a 30-24 lead.
Fiji had chances to win the match at the last. They attacked from deep, but England’s defence stood strong and forced them back into their own half. The offloads became more desperate and it looked like a Farrell knock-on had finished the game. Referee Mathieu Raynal judged it to be deliberate, Fiji had one last shot, but it was that combination of Lawes and Earl that turned the ball over, giving Farrell the chance to bring things to a close.
“It was a controlled performance at times, but there’s plenty that we can do better,” Farrell said. “There’s plenty we can still clean up.”
England were left bloodied and bruised, but vindicated. Amid a sea of chaos, England kept their composure against Fiji to book their place in the semifinals of the Rugby World Cup. They’ve been telling us since they arrived in France they’ve been improving, that they’ve learnt from previous mistakes and have grown.
The way they managed the breakdown was testament to that. That trio of Earl, Lawes and Curry was superb, aided ably by the likes of Itoje and Joe Marchant who secured one key first-half turnover.
“I think questions were asked of the back-row after the Samoa game,” Earl said. “Like I said, big game players have to start standing up and we’ve seen Courtney and Tom do it on the big stage and watching those boys in full flight is an absolute privilege.
“I’m glad we could all contribute and it feels like it’s the start of our journey as a three and hopefully we have two more big games to do it.”
For Fiji, their World Cup comes to an end. Again they have been wonderful, playing rugby from the heavens and have brought joy to whoever’s seen them play. You can’t help but root for them, wanting them to one day end up on the podium with the World Cup in their grasp. You hope it’s not a dream that’ll take decades, but they are making progress and credit has to go to Simon Raiwalui and their players.
“The pride’s never gone away, it’s there from the beginning until the day I die,” Raiwalui said. “These boys are family. Pride doesn’t disappear.
“The joy is there. For 15 weeks these boys have worked hard and we will celebrate that. We’re hurting now in terms of the result but I couldn’t be prouder of this group in terms of what they’ve put in. They’ve built something for the next generation of Fijian rugby players. They’ve laid a foundation.
“We’re hurting at the moment and it will hurt for a long time because it was something we had built and we thought we could go further. The belief in the team has always been there. I’m bursting with pride.”
For England, the echoes of 2007 are impossible to avoid. Back then England were marmalised in their opening match against South Africa, losing 36-0, but wrestled their way to the final, winning a quarterfinal in Marseille along the way. Sixteen years on and England are ploughing the same furrow. England are looking to keep this train on track, rumbling along, winning any which way possible.
As Borthwick said, an England team of recent past would’ve lost this game but this group aren’t up for their journey ending quite yet and Farrell’s performance typified that. He finished with 20 points, the Player of the Match award, and with the honour of having captained his team into the semifinal.
“I think he is a fantastic leader,” Borthwick said of Farrell. “He is the kind of leader I know I would want to follow onto the pitch. I think he is a brilliant player who thrives in the contest and especially in these big occasions he just gets even better. We are very fortunate to have Owen as a player in this team and as our leader. He should feel very proud of his performance and the way he led the team.”